The United States wants to see Sweden become a NATO member “as soon as possible”

United States Ambassador to the United States NATO, Julian Smithassured this Tuesday that his country wants the accession process sweden For the alliance “as soon as possible.”

“We want to see Sweden’s merger completed as quickly as possible.”He made the announcement at a news conference ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Thursday.

He said Washington was urging Hungary, the only coalition country that has not yet ratified Sweden’s accession, to do so “as soon as possible.”

Regarding the replacement of the current Secretary General of NATO, jens stoltenbergwhose mandate expires on 1 October, acknowledged that the acting Prime Minister of the Netherlands, mark ruteHas expressed interest in this post.

He said, “He is someone the coalition is considering,” and expressed hope that Stoltenberg’s successor would be chosen “in the coming months.”

He said the allies are very interested in completing the selection process “probably in the first quarter of this year” “to the extent that is feasible.”

On the other hand, the diplomat celebrated that the EU has recently given the green light to a package 50 billion euro support to Ukraine“That is added to the 90 billion euros that EU member states have already committed.”

“Compared, America has given 75 billion dollars I am in support and I am confident that the (US) Congress will soon pass another aid package,” he declared.

He warned that if Russia “succeeds” in Ukraine, European and transatlantic security “will undoubtedly be jeopardized.”

He announced that he does not expect Ukraine to be invited to join NATO as a member state at the summit of Allied leaders in Washington in July and that he is confident that the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr ZelenskyYou can attend that appointment in person.

NATO is leading the succession process for Secretary General and is focusing all attention on Rutte, who today The only official candidate in the running for office And there is majority support for the successor to the former Prime Minister of Norway.

After three extensions of his term, the last twice forced by a lack of candidates and Russian pressure with the war in Ukraine, Stoltenberg is living out his last months as head of NATO and at a summit of allied leaders in Washington in July. . The stage in which relays are staged.

However, the idea of ​​NATO partners is to obtain the necessary consent for this decision only in the springA few months before the summit at which the organization will celebrate its 75th anniversary, Explain the relevant sources. In this way, it aims to close the debate before the summit and prevent the position of Associate Secretary General from becoming a bargaining chip in the negotiations between senior European officials after the European elections in June.

Rutte, who has always been in the polls and publicly ran for the post late last year, is currently the only candidate in the race and has a “significant” number of confirmed endorsements, multiple affiliated sources say.

Dutch Prime Minister will already receive support The United States, the United Kingdom and key European allies, However NATO works by consensus and there are still many partners that have not given their ‘yes’ to the Dutch leader – for example, this would be the case of Hungary and Turkey.

Within the military organization, a Strong profile in deterrence and defence, which is supportive of Ukraine and realistic with Russia.

(With information from EFE and EP)